Ready for some renowned riparian entertainment? Get yourself Thamesside to see academic titans Oxford and Cambridge battle it out once again in an oar-some rowing race on the river. On Saturday March 30 2024, over 300,000 people are expected to line the banks to glimpse all the action, but if you’re like the majority of them as well as the sporting spectacle you’re also there for the chance to have an all-day booze fest. Whether you’re a diehard supporter or a fairweather fan, here’s our guide to everything you need to know about the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race 2024, so you can at least sound like rowing pro whilst sipping your sauvignon.
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The 2024 Boat Race takes place on Saturday March 24. Although the men’s race has been taking place annually since 1829 and the women’s race since 1927, it wasn’t until 2015 that both events began taking place on the same day.
Events on the riverbank kick off at noon when the fan parks at Bishop’s Park, Fulham and Furnivall Gardens, Hammersmith open with bars, street-food stands and a big screen to watch the BBC live coverage of the race. Between 1.55pm and 2.40pm the teams will toss a coin (an 1829 gold sovereign, no less) for the right to pick which side of the river they will row on.
It’s not until 4pm when the starting gun sounds to mark the beginning of the Women’s Boat Race. The Men’s Boat Race takes place an hour later at 5pm. If you want to stick around until the bitter end, the trophy presentations take place between 5.35pm and 6pm, after which the winning crew’s cox is traditionally dunked in the Thames.
Both the women’s and men’s races cover the same route: a four-mile-and-374-yard course starting at Putney Bridge and heading west to Chiswick Bridge in Mortlake. The Cambridge men’s team set a course record in 1998 completing the route in 16 minutes and 19 seconds.
The route runs past Putney Lower Common, under Hammersmith Bridge, alongside Furnivall Gardens, round the meander past Chiswick Steps, under Barnes Bridge and then past Chiswick Rugby Football Club grounds and on to the finish at Chiswick Bridge.
Find the places to watch the race with our guide: where to watch the Boat Race.
To make things mightily confusing, both teams wear blue for the race. The members of both crews are traditionally known as ‘blues’ and each boat is called the ‘Blue Boat’ after the award their universities give them for competing in the race.
But, to make things a little easier to differentiate, each crew wears a different stage: Cambridge dons light blue, and Oxford dark blue.
The current Boat Race champions are Cambridge for both the men and women’s race. The Cambridge men’s and women’s teams also hold the record for most overall wins, but there's still everything to play for.
The Boat Race is free to watch, so there’s no need to remember to bring a ticket or QR code. As with all outdoor sports in the UK, don’t forget to pack your brolly if rain’s on the cards and fill up your rucksack with plenty of cans and sausage rolls to get into the all-day party spirit.
You’re probably wondering how all this started in the first place. Well, the student rivalry goes back 200 years. The race came about after two former Harrow School chums Charles Wordsworth (at Oxford) and Charles Merivale (at Cambridge) went rowing on the river Cam, and the two fellows decided to set up a challenge.
It turned into an annual contest between rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge universities. The teams compete in eight-oared rowing boats, each steered by a cox who sits in the stern (the back of the boat).
Despite the competition’s two-century history, it was only in 2015 that the Women’s Boat Race first took place on the same course and on the same day as the men’s (the women’s race previously took place in Henley). Although founded in 1927 the women’s race didn’t become an annual fixture until the 1960s and, even then, the female rowers faced abuse and criticism from their male counterparts.
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